13 Embarrassing Guitar Fails

Let’s start off the week with a satisfying batch of Guitar Fails! From Slash to Lil Wayne to some guy from Australian Idol, we rounded up 13 Embarrassing Guitar Fails that’ll make you laugh while you cringe.

Shred legends like Slash and Eddie Van Halen seem to do no wrong while wielding a guitar, but they are, in fact, human. You’d be hard pressed to find a Van Halen fan who isn’t interested in witnessing an Eddie solo, but this one particular show left the crowd wishing VH had just played “How Many Say I” instead. We suppose you can’t fully blame Slash for his multiple mess-ups of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” either, as the substance consumption of the world’s most dangerous band was superheroic back in the day.

Let’s all agree on one thing: Lil Wayne should never touch a guitar again… ever. The Internet has destroyed the successful rapper multiple times for busting out an axe during concerts. Eventually, it seemed like the sound guys pulled a Sid Vicious and just unplugged the guy, as seen in the infamous “tapping” clip. For this compilation, however, we stuck to the classics, using Lil Wayne’s epic two-note guitar solo.

We threw some non-famous “guitarists” on this list too, though they’ve been infamous for having the gall to play an instrument while cameras were rolling. On an episode of Australian Idol, one of the greatest all-time fails took place. When you leave an audience genuinely questioning if you’ve ever picked up a guitar before, you know something went wrong. After butchering John Lennon’s “Imagine” (which is played entirely on piano, you dummy!) this guy brought the house down with a rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that somehow sounded exactly like the Lennon attempt.